A connector assembly for a fluid connection is known, for instance, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,551. In this known connector assembly the plug has, at the end facing the insert opening, several hooking-fingers, which can engage in a circumferential groove behind the head of the male part. In their first position the hooking-fingers lie along the shoulder of the bore, in such a way that the head of the male part can be inserted into the plug without the hooking-fingers touching the male part. When the head of the male part has been inserted into the plug and the male part is pushed further into the bore, the hooking-fingers are pushed inward and fall into the groove behind the head of the male part.
The plug slides inside the bore until a part of the plug which is provided with holes protrudes outside the bore. The other part of the plug remains in the bore.
To prevent the plug moving out of the bore in the direction of the insert opening, the known plug has a stop rim near the end that is facing away from the hooking-fingers, which rests against a stop rim formed by the bore.
This known connector assembly has a number of disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that the known plug with its outward-facing hooking-fingers has to be inserted into the bore from the insert opening, so that the stop rim of the plug can only be slightly larger than the inside diameter of the stop rim of the bore. As a result, the plug can only withstand a small pressure in the direction of the insert opening of the bore. Another disadvantage is that the hooking-fingers are thin and are therefore easily damaged or torn. It is also a drawback that when the male part is inserted at an angle the plug can be pushed out of its seat without the plug being properly connected to the male part. If subsequently the male part is pulled back, the plug is not drawn into its seat and the bore remains open. A further disadvantage of the known connector assembly is that the plug can easily adopt a slanted position in the seat when the male part is drawn back from the female part, so that the plug does not properly close off the bore.
Furthermore, connector assemblies are known of a different type, in which the plug is completely released from the bore of the female part and is then retained on the head of the male part. An example of such a connector assembly is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,270. This known connector assembly has the disadvantage that an undesirably high axial force is required to connect the male part with the plug and subsequently to push the plug out of the bore. It is also a disadvantage that the plug is pushed out of its seat already before the plug and the male part are connected to each other. This makes it necessary to design the plug and the bore without seams to ensure proper sealing between the bore and the plug that has been pushed out of its seat, which requires a complicated injection mould and increases the cost.